Namco Arcade Brings Free to Play Model to Classic Arcade Games

Posted by Carter Dotson on January 30th, 2012
+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad

Namco has released a new app that is a collection of several of their arcade games compiled into one app, appropriately entitled Namco Arcade. The games included come from Namco's vault of 80's arcade titles: Xevious, The Tower of Druaga, Motos and Phozon.

Xevious is a shoot ‘em up that has players shooting enemies not just in the air, but on the ground by using bombs. The Tower of Druaga is a proto-action-RPG that has players navigating mazes, killing enemies, blocking magic, and trying to collect a key to unlock the next levle of the tower. Motos has players controlling a bumper car in an arena, trying to knock their enemies off without falling off themselves. Finally, Phozon is an action-puzzle game where players collect items called moleks in order to try and match the shape in the center of the level, while avoiding the hazardous Atomic that kills upon contact.

The games can be played in one of two ways. First, they can be bought with in-app purchases outright, for prices from $1.99-$4.99 depending on the game. This unlocks them permanently, and unlocks their leaderboards and achievements functionality. The other way is to play them with Play Coins. This is similar to an actual arcade, where one coin gets one play of the game. Thankfully, Play Coins are going for less than quarters are nowadays, as $0.99 buys 10 coins. The player also gets one free Play Coin per day that can be spent on any game. This setup is similar to an app that Capcom put out last year.

While these aren't exactly games that are the pinnacle of Namco's arcade catalog, these are games that have been reissued at times in other collections, including the Namco Museum series of games on the consoles. There also is the potential for more games to be added; the requirement for 4th generation devices or later seems to indicate that these are straight-up emulations, not port jobs, which would make adding new games a hypothetical breeze. This is also a universal app, unlike the Capcom app. Namco Arcade is available now as a free download.

NAMCO ARCADE

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2012-01-26 :: Category: Game

FREE!

iPhone Screenshots

(click to enlarge)

NAMCO ARCADE screenshot 1 NAMCO ARCADE screenshot 2 NAMCO ARCADE screenshot 3 NAMCO ARCADE screenshot 4 NAMCO ARCADE screenshot 5

iPad Screenshots

(click to enlarge)

NAMCO ARCADE screenshot 6 NAMCO ARCADE screenshot 7 NAMCO ARCADE screenshot 8 NAMCO ARCADE screenshot 9 NAMCO ARCADE screenshot 10
Posted in: News
Tagged With: Games, Namco, Universal App, Namco Arcade
Share This: